Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
And, building on what Thesaidon said, there are few clearer examples of the operation of bad intellectual property laws than in the area of academic journals. Locking up scientific knowledge, usually gained through publicly funded research, does real and lasting harm, and I would argue not only fails to advance science, but in fact retards it. Another example is patents for lifesaving drugs. This is less clearcut because of the possibility that such drugs would never have been developed without the existing patent incentives. Yet the situation is clearly untenable where the price tag for these drugs is condemning people to death. Yet there seems to be little effort devoted to looking at changes to the existing system or other means of funding/incentivizing drug development whilst also ensuring no one is condemned to death through excessive prices.
Laws which operate so badly in practice can and should be dealt with by legislatures, but seldom are, usually because of lobbying by vested interests with very deep pockets. When legislatures abrogate their responsibility in this regard, it is certainly legitimate to discuss how the needed changes may be brought about. I am not by saying this advocating piracy or even civil disobedience. The question raised is more whether such measures can ever be justified before discussion of any particular cases. This is not appropriate for discussion on Mobileread, even in the political forums, as to argue that such measures can be justified, at least in the case of copyright, is to condone piracy in some limited circumstances, which is of course in breach of the relevant guidelines.
|
I think the problems you point out are very real ones and they're important and in a free society discussion of them should be encouraged.
However, I don't think piracy is an answer anymore than bank robbery is an answer to poverty. The answer, and the only possible answer, is to talk about it so we can influence others and eventually improve our system, which is supposed to be government by the will of the governed. Lobbyists lobby and have lots of money to do so. We have words and ideas and moral values and if we don't use them lobbyists keep winning.
So let's discuss them and share our ideas about them and do it with a bit of restraint like grownups. For a big old kid like me that's not easy but if I can do it you can too.
Barry